960 Pounds of Meth Seized in Minneapolis

(Learfield News/Minneapolis, MN) — A seizure of nearly one thousand pounds of methamphetamine in Minneapolis, estimated to be worth one point seven million dollars, is being heralded as one of the state’s largest drug busts.

The Ramsey County Violent Crime Enforcement Team, federal partners, and St. Paul police say they were investigating a drug trafficking ring when the seizure came about.

That comes after a seizure of nine hundred pounds of meth in Burnsville in June prompted searches in the metro.

Two men, forty-four-year-old Guillermo Chaparro and forty-six-year-old Joel Casas-Santiago, are in custody and face charges for the nine hundred sixty pounds of meth found in two vehicles.

Police say neither has local ties, and they are associated with larger drug sale organizations in Mexico.

The statutory minimum for each of the first-degree drug sales charges is sixty-five months, or five point four years, in prison.